...AND NOW I WAIT

It's been quite a month for the first of 2011. I finished my manuscript edits and forwarded them to my editor mid-January. With no idea how long it will take for her to return my story with rewrites, I started working on my next project. Tentatively called, Blended, this book is the sequel to Losing cinderella, a continuing saga of Georgia Charles journey of growth. She is a work in progress, as we all are in our travels in life.

This story forces Georgia to put her newly learned beliefs to the test. She must make a life-changing decision that will affect not only her life, but her daughter's, and all of those nearest and dearest to her.  

As mentioned in previous posts, I belong to a writer's group on Critique Circle. We submit chapters to our queue for critiquing and earn points to submit by critiquing others in our queue. This left me with a dilema. We usually submit with Chapter 1 and progress through the story chapter by chapter.  I realized this story is still in the writing stage. I have a  general outline of what I want to cover in the story, adding to it as I go along. But I don't write in order. Wherever my creative juices take me, that is where I write. As of this moment, I have written eight chapters, the first one, some near the beginning, some in the middle and the second to last chapter. Today, I plan on writing the last chapter. That's the only way I can function. Eventually, I'll have a rough draft and it will all come together. Until then, I won't submit anything. It would be too confusing to the reader and they would have a hard time following plot line and flow.

Instead, I've decided to crit everyone else's works and build up my points until I'm ready to submit. I would love to hear from others on how you write. Do you follow an outline from Chapter 1 through to the end, or do you create whevever the muse takes you?

I strongly recommend you join a writer's group, either one in your area, or if you live rurally like I do, join an on line group. Critique Circle is one of the best in my opinion and I believe, withoout a doubt,  my writer's queue led me to finding a publisher for my first novel. Here is their link if you wish to check them out.

http://www.critiquecircle.com/

Have a great week and keep on keeping on writing.

MY FIRST AWARD

So I signed onto my blog today and guess what? I was nominated for the stylish blog award. What a nice surprise.




Thanks to Liz Davis of http://novel-moments.blogspot.com/ for
nominating me. I'm honored.

The rules for accepting this award are:

Thank and link back to the person who awarded you this award

Share 7 things about yourself

Award 10 recently discovered great bloggers

Contact these bloggers and tell them about the award

Here they are, seven things about myself.

1. I was born and raised in Montreal, spoke French although I am English born, but since living in British Columbia,  I have to say I've lost a lot of the language.

2. I am a grandmother of nine grandchildren, aged seven months to seventeen, five girls and four boys.

3. I love to write, sing, and read.

4. I'm married to a very talented artist who shares my love of music and reading.

5. I belong to an on line writer's group, the golden girls, on Critique Circle, the best online group there is. I owe my publishing success to this site.

6. I live in the beautiful interior of British Columbia, surrounded by mountains, lakes, and wildlife such as bears, coyotees, mountain lions, and have my own trout stream running through my property where I love to sit and create characters and plots.

7. My first book is being published sometime in the fall and I'm thrilled.

My nominees are:

1. Tiffany Cannon  tiffanyc7.blogspot.com
2. Marva Dasef  http://mgddasef.blogspot.com/
3. Shannon O'Farrell  http://shannonofarrell.blogspot.com/
4. D.L. Jackson  http://backwardmomentum.blogspot.com/
5. Samantha Gentry  http://samanthagentry.blogspot.com/
6. Sophie McIntyre http://roundandroundc.blogspot.com/
7. Jayde Scott  http://jayde-scott.blogspot.com/
8. Patricia Puddle  http://trish-mollygumnut.blogspot.com/

Thanks again, Liz, for the nomination. I've found some new writing bloggers and look forward to blogging with them.

PUBLISHING CONTRACT

WOW...Remember last post I said I submitted to two publishers? On December 23rd, I got an early Christmas gift. I received a contract for my novel, Losing Cinderella from the second publisher.

The past two weeks have been a whirlwind of holidays and negotiations, and today I signed my first publishing contract. Did I just write that? Needless to say, I'm on cloud nine. I never expected it to happen this fast. This wasn't my first attempt to pitch my manuscript. I sent it out a couple of years back to about six publishers who rejected it. After tearing it apart and numerous rewrites, I tried again.  The message here?Believing in yourself and hard work does pay off.

This post was to be about self-publishing vs traditional publishing. Obviously, I am going the traditional route now. As a first-time author, I have a lot to learn about the publishing field and am more than happy to have the experts helping me publish and market my book.

But I would not be adverse to self-publishing either. If you are willing to do the work, and can afford to pay the printing and marketing costs, the bonus is 100% of the net profits are yours and yours alone. There are many sites on line willing to publish e-books for free and use POD (print-on-demand) for paperbacks. It's a matter of doing the research and there are so many sites on line to educate yourself on self-publishing.

I think self-publishing and free e-book sites are giving traditonal publishers a run for their money. But I don't believe they will be replaced any time soon. Personally, I still enjoy curling up in a chair in my jammies with a blanket and a good book. To my way of thinking, publishing of the future involves traditional publishers who embrace ebook technology, and POD technology.

Whichever way you decide to go, the resources for traditional publishing and self-publishing are all there at your fingertips on line. The only warning I would give, is check out any publishing sites before you sign up to do business with them. Again, you can find reports on this on line. There are site like: Preditors & Editors: http://pred-ed.com/ and Writers Beware:  http://www.sfwa.org/for-authors/writer-beware/ that list publishing scams and rate publishers, editors, publishing services, and agents. Do use them, they are invaluable.

Now that I have chosen the traditional route and have a contract under my belt, my work isn't over, just taken a different direction...marketing. Traditional publishers expect authors to participate in their marketing campaigns and hold up their end. So between rewrite deadlines and then marketing strategy, I expect this will be a busy year.

Keep on keeping on writing.